Spanish rescuers struggle to reach toddler trapped in borehole for seven days

Drill machines and excavating machinery work next to a deep borehole Credit: Gregorio Marrero/AP

Rescuers trying to reach a two-year-old boy trapped in a deep, narrow borehole are being hampered by difficult terrain.

There has been no contact made with Julen Rosello, who fell into the 360 feet shaft a week ago in the countryside northeast of Malaga.

At just 10 inches wide, the borehole is too narrow for adults to enter and the rescue effort has been hindered by difficult terrain.

The experts are hoping to dig a horizontal tunnel to the spot where they believe the boy is trapped, but authorities said on Sunday that a drill used to create a vertical shaft parallel to the waterhole had hit a rocky patch.

Emergency services at the scene in a mountainous area near the town of Totalan in Malaga. Credit: AP

A specially-made cage has arrived at the site, ready to lower mining rescue experts down the shaft.

The only sign of the boy that search-and-rescue teams have found so far is hair that matched his DNA inside the hole.

Angel Garcia, the leading engineer co-ordinating the search-and-rescue operation, said on Saturday that the horizontal tunnel would take at least another 20 hours to excavate.

People across Spain have been gripped by the plight of the boy and his family, as the rescue attempt has suffered agonising delays.